[360] Mass Effect

How to Tell a Hard Landing, with Mass Effect (Magical Wasteland)

this articles shots down all the problems i had with game.

Graphics problems aside, planets were empty, with same enemy types, they should have different flora and fauna as promised.
Conversation system is nowhere near what was shown in trailers.

Tough decisions are few.
Game is short for RPG, did evrything in 16hrs.
Main story line only has 5 planets, wtf?

Not much creativity in planets either.
One is grass, one is lava, one is snow, its so old settings for game , since sonic games.
I mean look at ratchet on PS3.

Still i like it alot 8.5/10 , though not upto my expectations.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Skexis

With KOTOR I believe some of the problems you mention stemmed from having a silent protagonist. It didn't bother me, particularly, but not hearing a voice or the inflection with it can really hurt a character for the audience.

I only played an hour or two of Mass Effect at a friend's house, but I was struck by how much better I felt playing a strong lead.

The dialogue is still divided, yes, but I think it is closer to what you might expect someone in real life to say. And I think that is in part because they're using an original universe, instead of falling back on "light" and "dark." You can act as the mediator, or the "renegade," or the neutral guy who just wants to get to the point, but all of them clearly have motivations that go beyond the black and white of past games.

I'm going to assume when you say more of the same, you mean dialogue trees. It's disingenuous to say so, though. The exposition sticks to dialogue trees because that's how they can best design a game with predictable results. What you're ultimately asking for is a virtual world, which, until technology catches up with us, is kind of silly to expect from any developer. Much less Bioware. Making them the standard for failure in story interaction is kind of shortsighted.

When you mix and match neutral statements with your alignment, I find that the statements are much more palatable. No, I'm not a fan of dialogue trees, but I would like to be clear that that's not my issue. Nor was the fact that dialogue was not spoken in previous Bioware efforts. To be honest, not much has changed if you choose to respond with entirely Paragon or entirely Renegade choices.

I do not like a majority of Bioware's main character dialogue, though I do admit that there is a level of improvement seen in Mass Effect.

I'm not asking for realism, so much as... here, let me use this as an example. Wrex's responses as a Renegade style character are great. Endearing, even. One of the most enjoyable characters in the game. Going into a straight Renegade path with the protagonist makes you sound like a gigantic asshole in contrast. This, of course, is solved by meshing neutral responses with Renegade responses to achieve the desired effect. However, there are still times where you run into painfully vanilla dialogue based on "Good" or "Evil."

This doesn't ruin the game, but story is a big part of the experience in Mass Effect and a lot of it is more of the same from Bioware. Which I'm just not fond of. A personal issue to be certain. If we're going to have polarized responses, I just wish they weren't so painful to deliver. I'm saying I find a bulk of the dialogue to be horrible.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I won't nitpick anything here but nobody did "everything" in 16 hours. Maybe by "everything", you mean "skipped the majority of side-quests" because otherwise, unless you chose to SKIP EVERY DIALOG WITH X, there is no way in hell you did that, since some of the conversations alone take up 10~15 minutes of your time.

It IS short though, as I did everything (55 sidequests I believe is the max, which i had when i counted my journal) and I beat the game in 37 or so hours; which is pretty short when you consider I did *everything*. The game was still fantastic, though. The ending events especially. I haven't actually LIKED the ending to a game in a long time, but I actually was quite fond of Mass Effect's.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Sexninja

Game is short for RPG, did evrything in 16hrs.

No you didn't. Granted, you make up dumb shit all the time, so this isn't uncommon for you.

But I'll give you that it's painfully short. When you can accomplish a majority of it when you're TAKING YOUR TIME and walking around and getting almost everything done in 28 hours, there's a painful shortage of stuff for this kind of game.

My complaints about this title are numerous, but I feel like venting them would make me seem like I do not enjoy it, when in fact I do. It's just that there's so many problems with it even after all this time in the cooker, that you wonder if Bioware would EVER shape up and stop making the same mistakes every FUCKING TIME they make a game.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I enjoy playing the game, but the story seems a bit weak. They need to go a little more in depth. Also, as well as the fact that its a short game. It was very enjoyable to play. I want more...Bioware has made a habit of doing this for me, thanks assholes.

How ya doing, buddy?

There is already 12 hr walkthorugh online, find it if you can for your own good.

I did the mainstory in 13hrs+3hrs for side missions.
In citadel you can use transit system to quick jump to areas, it kills the time alot.
I played as soldier, he is so badass that only few hits are needed for kills.
Saren was piece of cake too.
I used 4 medigels in whole game, maybe i am too good at thsi game.
Use wrex and liara, beef them up and it wont be trouble to complete it in 16 hrs.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Sexninja

There is already 12 hr walkthorugh online, find it if you can for your own good.

I did the mainstory in 13hrs+3hrs for side missions.
In citadel you can use transit system to quick jump to areas, it kills the time alot.
I played as soldier, he is so badass that only few hits are needed for kills.
Saren was piece of cake too.
I used 4 medigels in whole game, maybe i am too good at thsi game.
Use wrex and liara, beef them up and it wont be trouble to complete it in 16 hrs.

There is no way you completed all of the side missions in 3 hours. That's just impossible.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Wait till speed demos will hit online.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm sure there will be tons of speed runs doing all the pointless sidequests and full planet exploration. [/sarcasm]

Just do everyone a favor and stop being a lying cunt.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Who cares about getting it done in less then 20 hours or whatever.
I'm going to leisurely finish at my own pace. Kinda takes the fun out of a new game to finish it so fast. Now if it was a much older game that was well-known, then I could see the appeal, but the game JUST came out. Sheesh.

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Can someone please remove sexninja from the thread for being painfully stupid and purposefully disseminating false information. You can't finish all of the side quests in 3 hours, you spend more than three hours just waiting for the textures to pop in {:rimshot:}.

Yes, there are some problems with the game, such as the texture pops, and the buggy music that will randomly stop sometimes when you pause the game, and the cookie-cutter non-main quest locations {there is one layout for the underground base, one for the above ground base, one for the mineshaft, and one for the derelict ship, the only differences within each is the layout of the crates that are inside}. Yes, there are only seven story locations

Spoiler:

Eden Prime
The Citadel
The planet you get Liara on
Noveria
Feros
Vermire
Ilos

But the gameplay is very fun. The voice acting, on average, is pretty good. I like the dialog trees, and I like the fact that you can handle any situation however you see fit. Go to rescue a diplomat held hostage? Talk the hostage taker down or kill everyone. You don't really seem to get a bonus for being 100% Paragon or 100% Renegade, so just handle each situation however you feel at the time, if you are so inclined {the only tangible things you get for going one way or the other is that once you reach 75% either way, you unlock ONE additional quest and an achievement}.

I love the visual style, when it is actually textured. I really like the overall universe that they have constructed. The music is amazingly good. I like all of the options I am given for weapon and armor modifications; I can optimize my equipment based on my style of play and character class. I liked the story and the various story locations.

read only if you completed the game:

Though I do wish that we could have done an all out assault on Saren inside of Sovereign, that would have been fun to explore.

I don't expect to use words to make someone who didn't like the game magically start liking it; my point is that for me, they did enough right that I really enjoyed the experience. I think my first playthrough was something like 32 or 35 hours, and I unlocked the Completionist achievement, so I did complete at least 75% of the game; to me that is a perfectly acceptable game length, not much shorter than Kotor I don't think. I just feel like the nitpicky flaws are just that: nitpicky; not game breaking. The closest to game breaking is the texture popping, which I wish that they would have required the hard drive, so they could have used some better caching to help remedy that problem.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Django! pointed out a positive quality about the side quests I feel worth noting. It was interesting how occasionally they chose to let the player attempt to piece things together. We both agreed, after he pointed it out, that the Rogue VI quest was surprisingly eerie at the end. The scene itself was haunting and left a lot to the imagination.

Bioware can do great characters and great quests, so it isn't like there isn't anything to enjoy in their games. sexninja seems to have a misconception about what exactly it is anyone can enjoy from a roleplaying game. I assure you, length might come into the equation, but it isn't a sole factor.

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Wonder what the DLC they will include if at all, since they do have that option within the extras.

Just wondering what direction it will take since EA got their hands on Bioware.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Kagosin

Wonder what the DLC they will include if at all, since they do have that option within the extras.

Just wondering what direction it will take since EA got their hands on Bioware.

Given that they planned this as a Trilogy from the start, EA's classic executive meddling will probably only be seen in the finalé.

Then again, hopefully EA will treat BioWare like they did for Maxis and leave it alone to do its own thing. HOPEFULLY.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Half of Bioware has been pulled off of their current projects and put on the DS version of the next Madden game.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Dark Nation

Given that they planned this as a Trilogy from the start, EA's classic executive meddling will probably only be seen in the finalé.

Then again, hopefully EA will treat BioWare like they did for Maxis and leave it alone to do its own thing. HOPEFULLY.

Yea. But then again even without EA, I still see people complain about things within the game. Everyone can't be pleased unfortunately.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I think the partnership with EA would likely help Bioware out a bit, giving them some extra funding and maybe a little extra manpower to iron out the wrinkles that have plagued their otherwise great previous efforts.

EA isn't as bad a company as a lot of people make them out to be. Sure, they shovel out some garbage games (but who doesn't?) They also have quite a few AAA titles though. Someone mentioned Maxis. The Sims is still a great game, even despite all the expansions (don't the expansions just make The Sims better anyway?). I can't imagine EA would have BioWare rush their titles or make them any worse, at least.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Price fixing DLC content isn't just an EA issue either. Hell, look at Namco.

Dream DLC includes a new sidequest planet layout! NOW WITH LESS STUPID MOUNTAINS. Also, I would love to download a new pirate base layout. One that isn't identical to all the rest. Ah, that'd be nice.

Get on it boys, you can even charge for both seperately. I'll still buy it. Git, git.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Rotorblade

Django! pointed out a positive quality about the side quests I feel worth noting. It was interesting how occasionally they chose to let the player attempt to piece things together. We both agreed, after he pointed it out, that the Rogue VI quest was surprisingly eerie at the end. The scene itself was haunting and left a lot to the imagination.

Bioware can do great characters and great quests, so it isn't like there isn't anything to enjoy in their games. sexninja seems to have a misconception about what exactly it is anyone can enjoy from a roleplaying game. I assure you, length might come into the equation, but it isn't a sole factor.

One of the really motivating factors for me, honestly. The side quests usually range from simple back story for your character and blatant opportunities to gain a few XP, but occasionally they'll toss in some profound experiences. I understand that the entire game can't be emotionally significant, and I don't expect it to be. But simply knowing that I'll come across one on occassion keeps me going.

Examples:

Revenge.

Spoiler:

Test subject marine. Corporal, maybe? He comes to get revenge on the assholes that screwed his head up. I didn't have the points in charm or intimidate to diffuse the situation differently, so I was forced to either let the guy kill the scientist, or save the scientist. I played this section over and over again to see the end results. I kept going back to the first choice I made. I let the soldier end it his way. Even though both ended up dead, I don't think I could have let the scientist live, because, even on my first playthrough, I trusted the soldier over him, and I was right.

VI Mission Part 2? Credit stealers.

Spoiler:

There's another mission similar to this on the Citadel. Someone is siphoning credits off a gambling machine. You eventually track it to a sentient AI in a computer. I ended up shutting it down since it supported the Geth and wanted to make away with loads of cash to the Geth systems. Though, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I let him siphon off all of the credits.

SPACE.... MADNESS...

Spoiler:

The lady that killed off the crew to keep her husband alive was another endearing side quest. Though I did pump the crazy bitch full of buckshot, I do feel sorry for her. But not as much as the poor guy stuck in limbo and her dead crew.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'd like to add another to that list.

Rear Admiral Kohoku

Spoiler:

He sends you out to look for his missing marines. Of course you find that they were lured by a dummy signal to a thresher maw nest. Later, he voicemails you that he found who was behind the dummy signal, Cerberus, in hopes that you will bring them to justice. Of course you do, but alas, Cerberus got to Kohoku. You discover his body in the third of three Cerberus research facilities that you wipe out. Earth was sad. Poor Admiral Kohoku

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Is it possible to switch the lead character like in KOTOR? When I try to unlock some safes and stuff, the game tells me that my skills are too low. One of my other characters has higher stats in that area, but I haven't figured out how to switch players.

FELIPE NO

Nope. But actually you use the highest skilled person when you do that anyway, since Shepard uses Tali's/Kaiden's/Garrus's/etc's skills when doing this. Especially obvious if you are a soldier and have no lock picking/hacking abilities whatsoever.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

That's what I do, if I'm on some planet, standing next to a probe and its all "SKILLZ 2 LOW, YO", I just head back up to the ship and switch crewmembers, making sure to grab the guy / girl with all the tech stuff. "I HACK THIS BITCH LIKE THAT"

Anyone make a custom character yet? I'd like to see how good / bad the character creator can get. I'll post some screenshots later of mine if others are interested.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Has anyone else heard about a sequel to Mass Effect? I saw something on it and am not sure if it's a rumor or not... can anyone here help confirm anything on this for me?

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Mass Effect is suppose to be a trilogy so yes there will be a mass effect 2 but we just don't know when or if bioware already started working on it...

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.